Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels
Kuala Sepetang, Perak, Malaysia - September 2016
Our cycling adventures frequently take us to Kuala Sepetang, a nice rustic fishing village on the coast of Perak, where the locals are friendly and helpful. And also where there are great seafood at reasonable prices. One of the better places to eat in is Xin Restaurant. We went there twice, once in 2015 in support of our friends taking part in a 8TV production, Let's Cycle,; and again lately when we had a good short weekend cycling from Kuala Sepetang to Parit Buntar.
And both times we left smiling and happy with palates fully satisfied!
But for those who want to go to Xin, don't be too happy yet as it is not an easy place to find; or don't get confused if you can't find the place. Just be patient and slowly look, or better still ask a local. See, the road that leads to Xin is not a road, but a small narrow alley in between two houses just a person wide. The house on the right is Xin, but the doors seem to be permanently closed, so I won't blame you if you get confused. We were lucky as our local Taiping buddy Ho, took us there the first time; and he made very good food orders too.
The narrow lane leads to a hidden treasure that is Xin, inside is a large dining area that faces the sea and it come with a glorious sunset in the evening. This squeezy approach makes the place all the more memorable!
The entrance is memorable, let's see if the food is as memorable (if you see a lot of food below, don't get confused; they were from two meals):
First some starters to work up our appetite. These Deep Fried Mini Crabs were very sweet. The top shells had been peeled away before frying, the body were succulent and the legs crispy.
These cockles were lightly poached so that their meet were still soft. These were served with garlic chilli sauce; would have been even better if they had added some pounded groundnuts to the sauce.
And then continue with a light dish - their signature tofu dish; this was quickly deep fried in very hot oil so that the skin is crispy but the inside still soft. Served with soy sauce-oil gravy with sprinklings of spring onions. These tofu were self-made by their chefs and had that good slight musky aroma and flavour.
Another signature dish: Curry Prawns. As expected the prawns were super fresh and the curry just nicely thick with good santan creaminess.
We ordered bread to go with the curry; this came out separately and the curry prawns were poured in. The bread was made in the shape of a hollowed out round gourd.
The crispy-skinned bread went very well with the curry; just slowly peel out small pieces and dip into the curry. Greedy us; the curry was so good we also ordered some white rice to go with it.
Some greens to balance off our meal; these stir fried Baby Chinese Lettuce were fresh and crunchy. Lightly sauced and with cuts of garlic they were good.
Something more strongly flavoured - Kangkong (Water Spinach) stir fried with sambal and pounded dried prawns.
And while at Xin; don't miss their fresh fishes. This one is Soong Fong steamed Teowchew style. The Soong Fong (Five Finger Threadfin) is a species similar to Ma Yau (Ordinary Threadfin) but is much sweeter and definitely more expensive.
This Pak Chor (Sea Bass) was also very fresh with tender and sweet meat; also done Teochew Steamed style.
Seong Thong Lala Clams, without so much soup so it was much tastier.
Stir fried lala clams; this one is of a smaller variety but the meat was also very sweet.
Looks YummY! Yah?
Deep fried cuttlefish (Calamari) coated with batter. These went very well with the beer we had, so we often call it Beery food which are Bery Good (said in a tipsy way)
And to crown off our meals crabs! These flower crabs had sweet meat which were stripy firm.
Rock crabs with firm but not hard meat. We were lucky we managed to get those with yummy roe. Both the flower and rock crabs were lightly baked, no gravy to get in the way of their tastes, just the way I like it.
Both meals were very satisfactory and did not burn a hole in our pockets AND we will definitely be back for more.
Kuala Sepetang, anyone?
XIN SEAFOOD RESTAURANT
Hours: 12:00 am to 9:30 pm (Closed on alternated Mondays, call first.)
GPS: 4.83425, 100.62756
(Click here for Google Street View)
(Note: entrance is through the narrow alley on the left of the single-storey building on the Google Street View)
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